Agency News

Senator Sonny Angara said that if the Duterte administration wants economic growth to be more inclusive or be felt by a larger population, it should also invest heavily in the agriculture sector aside from infrastructure development. Angara said the country needs nothing short of an “agricultural revolution,” which the Duterte administration could spearhead, alongside its “Build, Build, Build” initiative, the centerpiece program of the administration. Angara noted that an agricultural revolution is necessary to help revive the country’s ailing agriculture sector. The elder Angara recently received a posthumous award given by the Department of Agriculture “for his distinguished contribution in the modernization of the Philippine agriculture and fisheries through the realization of the Agriculture and Fishery Modernization Act (AFMA) while he served as Agriculture Secretary from 1999 to 2001.” The younger Angara said that becoming an agriculture secretary gave his father the opportunity to implement the AFMA law and to champion the advancement of food production programs that brought about the increase in volume of rice yield and other food staples in the country.